Anyone old enough to remember Mision Impossible won’t forget the sultry character named Cinnamon Carter, played to perfection by Barbara Bain. In that role Barbara broke a ‘60s stereotype by portraying a woman who could hold her own against men while maintaining her sex appeal.

      In Mission, as well as her next series Space: 1999, she co-starred with her husband Martin Landau. Fans were taken aback when they separated in 1983 after 25 years of marriage and divorced several years later.

      Life, however, was far from over for Barbara, as LIFESTYLES learned in a recent interview in her lovely Los Angeles home.

      Most recently she’s had a recurring role on the ABC show My So-Called Life as Bess Armstrong’s meddlesome mother Vivian, but she’s plenty busy when not acting.

Barbara, have you appeared as a guest star on many TV shows in recent years?

      Not a lot. I only act when I find a role I really want to do. Fortunately, I’m financially able to pick and choose. It’s a nice spot to be in.

You must have a lot of free time. How do you spend it?

      I do a lot of things. I take modern dance. I’m active in the theatre, with local museums and I do poetry readings. I also do play readings for young writers who need to hear their work performed. But what I’m most proud of is my work with a reading program I created.

Tell us about it.

      It’s called Book Pals. I founded it three years ago. Professional actors volunteer to go to a particular school on a regular basis and read to kids after school.

What inspired your idea?

      I was playing a board game called Personal Preference with my daughter, Juliet. The object is for your opponent to determine how well she knows you. You are given a card listing several things a person could do like “eat an ice cream cone” or “go to Hawaii”. You are supposed to choose which one you would most want to do and your opponent gets points if she correctly guesses your preference. One of my choice was “reading to children”, something I loved to do when my two daughters were young but something I hadn’t done for years. My daughter was surprised when that wasn’t my first choice. I said, “I don’t do that anymore”, and she argued that just because I didn’t do it didn’t mean it was something I wouldn’t like to do. The next day I thought about what she said. I asked myself, “If I love it so much, how come I’m not doing it?”

What happened next?

      I volunteered to read to kids in the park over the summer, which was lovely, and the children loved it, but summer ended. I htought, there are 30,000 professional actors in this city with time on their hands. Why not take this into the schools to children who might need a little encouragement to read? I talked to the  mayor and the Screen Actors Guild and other professional acting organizations, and the program was implemented in two months. I’m really proud of it.

What celebrities are associated with it?

      I don’t keep a list because It’s not star-oriented, but Whoopi Goldberg went with me to my school and Bonnie Franklin (One Day at a Time) has been active. And I’m thrilled to say that the program has now gone national.

Besides keeping your mind in a good shape, you’re also still a very attractive lady. Is it true you are 63?

      I beg your pardon. That’s not true. Somebody has it wrong. I’ve heard that I’m anywhere from 58 to 68. I don’t want to mess with the age issue at all. I have no connection to the numbers. I can’t believe they apply to me anyway, but one can say I’m getting on.

Are you a grandmother yet?

      No. Neither of my daughters has married and both are busily embarked on their careers. Susie, my older daughter, has done a lot of production work with Francis Ford Coppola and has written a screen play she’s going to produce. Juliet has an acting career. She ‘s appearing currently in Ed Wood with her father.

Would you like to be a grandmother?

      I’ve never been albe to tell anybody what to do with their life so I don’t say anything to my daughters, but recently I’ve been looking at babies a lot. There must be a reason, but I’m not discussing it with them because it’s their life.

What is your relationship with Martin?

      We speak, though not a lot. We did a lot of talking for a lot of years, and all’s well, There’s not animosity between us. It was a long, deep relationship. We sort of did it all and went our separate ways.

Do you live in the same house you shared with him and your girls?

      No. Three years ago I bought a new house, a very different kind of house.

Tell us about it.

      I just adore it. I’m up on a hill in Los Angeles and have a view of the ocean. It’s a minimalist house, but it’s very smooth and soft. It isn’t stark-looking, even though it’s very simple.

      I totally re-did the house with a friend of mine, a designer named Lenny Steinberg. I lived in it while it was being renovated, which took about a year. Everybody thought I was bananas, but I loved it. It was noisy, filthy and terribly exciting.

      All the furniture in the house was made for the house.